How Many Celebrities Does it Take to Make a Hit Web Series?

What kind of web series sends you a giant salami in a red and grey tube sock as a promotion? One where said salami actually plays a crucial role in its off-the-wall comedy and even odder plot lines.

Backwash is an entirely strange and utterly surreal new web series premiering on Sony-owned video site Crackle () this November 15.

The 13-episode series largely follows three hapless companions (played by Michael Ian Black, Michael Panes and Joshua Malina, who also wrote and produced the series) after one of them accidentally robs a bank armed with naught but a large salami.

The show features a humongous list of guest actors, including Jon Hamm, John Stamos, Sarah Silverman, John Cho, Allison Janney, Hank Azaria, Michael Vartan, Steven Weber, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Dulé Hill, Fred Willard and others. While some only appear as guest narrators, others will figure into the story arc itself.

Despite the bloated roster, each episode will still run less than 10 minutes. The idea for Crackle, however, is to craft those small segments into something that could stand on its own.“We’ll have 90 minutes of content, released episodically, at a calibre and quality where we can put them out on DVD, sell them on cable or satellite,” said Eric Berger, Senior VP of Digital Networks for Sony. Backwash is just one of the four original series exclusively produced for Crackle each year.

Berger sees one of the key differences between a video site like Crackle and competitors such as Hulu () or YouTube () is demographic targeting.

Backwash is another way Crackle can reach out to target demographic of males ages 18 to 34. Crackle provides editorial content through its blog and curates video lists that might appeal specifically to that demographic.

The show has taken a while to become reality, according to Malina.

“I initially just started writing it as comic material,” Malina said. “It went through many iterations. I thought it should be a screenplay, onstage, as a sitcom pilot. I never really completed it, I hadn’t really found the right medium for it.”

It was only when Ken Marino, another actor in the series, suggested trying a web series that Malina felt he found its home. “There’s a surreal aspect to it that’s well suited to the Internet ().”

Malina said he enjoyed being able to cast and shoot the show without creative restriction, even though web series have historically low budgets and short shooting times. “A big negative is how you make a living doing [a web series],” Malina said. “We just sort of accepted that it was this new area and we’re not going to get rich off of it.”

It seems like this is the standard for most web series regardless of size: Fiscal gains are given up for a tremendous amount of creative freedom. Hopefully shows like Backwash, with its high production values and star-studded cast, can help elevate web series in the mainstream eye.

We’d love to get your thoughts on this subject, especially when the show comes out on the 15th. Is Backwash a one-off celebrity project or can it help to bring exposure to smaller web series that might not have the same resources or talent? Are you looking forward to Backwash? Let us know in the comments below.